The Beauty Of Numbers

(via Vinna Mara Magalhaes)

9 x 9 + 7 = 88
98 x9 + 6 = 888
987 x 9 + 5 = 8888
9876 x 9 + 4 = 88888
98765 x 9 + 3 = 888888
987654 x 9 + 2 = 8888888
9876543 x 9 + 1 = 88888888
98765432 x 9 + 0 = 888888888

Good Morning, Vietnam

Memorable quote (s) from the movie:

Lt. Steven Hauk (Bruno Kirby): Sir, the man has got an irreverent tendency. He did a very off-color parody of former VP Nixon.

General: I thought it was hilarious.

Lt. Steven Hauk (Bruno Kirby): Respectfully, sir, the former VP is a good man and a decent man.

General: Bullshit! I know Nixon personally. He lugs a trainload of shit behind him that could fertilize the Sinai. Why, I wouldn't buy an apple from the son of a bitch and I consider him a good, close, personal friend.

Star Rubies And Sapphires

When you read the story you realize that beauty is still in the eye of the beholder. There is a religious + historical spin to this story, and for this reason valuation becomes even more difficult. When you look at the prices quoted for the stones, it becomes clear that they are quoting prices based on the size (s) of the stone not the quality.

Mr. G. Vidyaraj, the owner of world's largest Star-Rubies is the direct descendant of the royal family of great Kingdom of Vijayanagar, India. The most famous of its kings was Krishna Deva Raya (1509-30), who imported velvets and damasks from Aden and China, horses from Arabia and elephants from Ceylon. Vidyaraj's gems must have been court jewels or the spoils of a war. The history of these stones, as narrated by Vidyaraj, is fascinating. Vijayanagar was world-centre for trade of precious gems and jewellery and traders from far flung corners of the world embarked upon hazardous and lengthy journeys coming to Vijayanagar in search of magnificent and unusual stones; with them they brought Emeralds from South America, Rubies from Burma and Pearls from Persian-gulf. Some of the world's more celebrated stones, mostly diamonds, like the Kohinoor, the Orlov, the Hope and the Pitt, are believed to have originated from the Vijayanagar dynasty. This great kingdom fell after the Talikota war of 1565, and his ancestors fled from Vijayanagar to the erstwhile state of Mysore.

You can now buy the Ravirathna, world's largest star ruby cut like a cabochon on top, weighing 3553 carats for a Billion US Dollars. Or it's smaller cousin, the Rajarathna, the largest star ruby in the world, weighing 2475 carats, for 500 Million US Dollars. If you cannot afford either, you might consider buying the Neelanjali, a double star sapphire weighing 1370 carats displaying twelve star lines, on offer for 200 Million US Dollars. Or world's largest uncut Burma ruby of 45000 carats for US Dollars 50 Million or may be a Burma ruby of four or five carats available at 75,000 US Dollars per carat.

''Being the worshippers of Shiva, they had brought with them several tiny sacred objects supposed to be lingams or symbols of Lord Shiva. These objects were called saligramas."

Always a rationalist at heart, he suspected that there might be something interesting hidden behind the centuries of grime and soot. So he sent off his family and domestic staff out on a holiday afternoon, and attacked one of the sacrosanct objects with soap and brush.

What emerged appeared, even to Vidyaraj's untrained eye, to be a precious stone. Ever the cautious lawyer, Vidyaraj locked the stones away again and began reading books on gemology in his spare time. As his knowledge of precious stones improved, he took the smallest of the stones out, and began taking it around to various gem cutters in the city. He would ask one to clean it, another to cut it, a third to start making facets and so on.

Those days of amateurism did cost him a lot. He now admits that more than half of 1125 carat star ruby, the Vidyaraj, was lost while cutting it. Now it weighs just 650 carat. Interestingly, this particular stone, which has Guinness Book listing,

Almost a decade ago, Vidyaraj first revealed the existence of a gigantic ruby that he named the Indumathi after his wife. It was a double star 2475-carats ruby with two stars of six lines each. This became the largest known ruby in the world, replacing the Rosser Reeves ruby, which is on display at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC.

Before this piece could make it to the Guinness Book, it was surpassed by another even bigger ruby that Vidyaraj named after himself. The Vidyaraj gem is 3.6 cm high and 4.1 cm wide.

And just when the world thought it had seen it all, Vidyaraj made public another stone, that he called the Rajarathna, at the end of 1986. It weighed 2805 carats in its rough form, and lost only 330 carats in cutting. His new revelation took the gem world by storm.

The media then started watching Vidyaraj, who was by then something of a celebrity, closely. How many more mineral wonders did he have up his sleeve, they wondered?

Vidyaraj certainly did not disappoint them. Exactly two years later, he gave the world one more valuable jewel, the Neelanjali, which weighed 2400 carat in its rough form, and 1370 carat after cutting.
The Neelanjali is now in the Guinness Book as the largest double sapphire in the world. It replaced in the world records a sapphire that adorns a stone bust of Abraham Lincoln in the Kazanjian Foundation in Los Angeles.

Now, he has revealed the existence of two more stones. One he describes as the "world's largest uncut ruby," a translucent pomegranate red stone of Burmese origin weighing a staggering 45,000 carats, and quotes a negotiable price of 50 million US Dollars. The other is, of course, the 3553 carat Ravirathna star ruby, for which he wants the astronomical price of One Billion U.S.Dollars. This deep red Burmese ruby displays an animated star of six red rays.

While other of the world's most precious stones, like the giant Star of Africa diamond, Queen Elizabeth's crown jewel, are kept safely in places like the high-tech vault in the Tower of London, Vidyaraj's huge precious stone collection is stored in undisclosed bank vaults dotted around the globe. However, pictures of them are readily available, as are certificates from renowned gemologists, who testify to their existence and value.

References:
Indian Express 30/11/1986
The Wall Street Journal 31/12/1991
The Illustrated weekly Of India 29/06/1991
Obsession 25/08/1991
The City Tab 07/12/1986
Indian Express 07/04/1999
Sunday Observer 01/01/1995
Kalki 28/10/2001
The Times of India 06/05/2000
The New York Times 15/01/1992

World’s Largest Uncut Ruby
Star ruby
45000 carats
World’s largest uncut star ruby is far superior to any other stone in color, quality and clarity. It is translucent and deep red in color with hardness 9 on Moh’s scale.
Price: US$50 million (negotiable)

Neelanjali
Double star sapphire
1370 carats
Neelanjali" a 1370 carat double star sapphire displaying twelve rays has no parallel in the world. Each star line cutting at 30 degrees on cabochon head produces great optical delight when viewed under light .This gained entry into Guinness Book of World Records as a new entry.
Price: US$150 million (negotiable)

Rajarathna
Star ruby
2475 carats
Rajarathna" a 2475 carat rare star ruby displaying six star lines ,is the largest star ruby in existance,as such is entered into Guinness Book of World Records as the largest star ruby. The animated jumps high on the cabochon head. Its star lines are clear and sharp under light. Being translucent, it has a pleasant pomegranate color with a slight purple tinge.
Price: US$250 million (negotiable)

Ravirathna
Star ruby
3553 carats
"Ravirathna" a 3553 carat unprecedented star ruby is far superior to both Rajarathna and Neelanjali in color, quality, clarity and cut. It displays clearly an animated star of six red rays that shines on the cabochon head. It is translucent and deep red in color, amazing in concept, exquisite in exposure. Really the gem of gems! a super star.
Price: US$550 million (negotiable)

Photographing Inclusions

John Koivula is the grandmaster of photomicrography of gem inclusions. I don't know how many times I have read this article, but the more I read I always always learn something new. For those who are interested, Photoatlas of Inclusions + volume 1 + 2, are excellent references.

(via Gems & Gemology, Vol.XVII, Fall, 1981) John Koivula writes:

Although the general principles of photomicrography are easily learned and applied, high quality photomicrography is an art that is mastered only with time and great patience. The microscope must be kept scrupulously clean, and the effects of light on the subject inclusion must be fully understood in order to determine what method (s) of illumination will yield the most useful photographic image. Specialized techniques that can save film and time, while producing top quality photomicrographs, are usually learned only through long hours of experience. This article discusses some of these techniques, such as the importance of a properly prepared microscope and photographic subject, as well as the control of vibrations and exposure time. In addition, the various methods of illumination that are adaptable to a standard binocular gemological microscope are introduced.

Photomicrography of inclusions in gems requires the combined techniques of gemological microscopy, photomicrography, and the various specialized methods of illumination that aid in capturing images of a gem’s interior on film. It is a simple matter to load film and place a camera body with a microscope adapter over a microscope eye piece, put a gem in the microscope’s gem holder, focus on the inclusions within, and start snapping pictures one after the other by pushing the button on the cable release. These, however, are only the first small steps toward good photomicrography.

A sound working knowledge of inclusions in gems and how they react to various forms of illumination is vitally important. This knowledge is the first major step toward outstanding photomicrography. Along this road of learning there are a number of stumbling blocks. How should exposure time be controlled? What about long exposures? How can vibration be reduced? What illumination techniques are available and how can they best be used? And so on.

It is my intent in this article to introduce some important considerations for photographing inclusions through a microscope and to help remove many of these stumbling blocks for the interested gemologist. This article does not attempt to reiterate the ‘how to’ of photomicrography, which has been presented in numerous other articles. Rather it reports the specific application of these techniques to, and in many cases their refinement for, photographing inclusions.

Why photomicrography?
Not only are inclusion photographs often quite beautiful, but they can be highly informative as well. Properly identified and catalogued, photomicrographs can serve as a visual reference library that greatly aids the gemologist both in the routine identification of gemstones and in the determination of their origins, especially whether natural or synthetic. It is neither economical nor feasible for one individual to own every gem with interesting inclusions that has ever been encountered, and it is impossible to remember the internal characteristics of every major gem species. With photomicrographs, however, important inclusion characteristics are always available for quick reference.

Photomicrography also affords the jeweler-gemologist a permanent record of the internal characteristics of a specific gemstone. Inasmuch as no two inclusion images are ever exactly alike, the jeweler-gemologist, aided by photomicrographs, can identify beyond reasonable doubt a specific previously photographed stone. Even if a gem is recut, as long as the inclusions are deep within the stone rather than right on the surface, the stone can be identified through previous photomicrographs.

Getting a clean start
A good microscope should be treated as you would treat any precision instrument. When not in use, it should always be covered. Never smoke around optical equipment, and avoid eating while taking photomicrographs. Although these precautions should slow the process, oculars, objectives, and phototube lenses will eventually become dirty. Accordingly, when lens cleaning is needed, a can of compressed air should be used first to blow off all lose dirt particles. Then a soft camel’s hair brush can be employed to lightly loosen any stubborn dust so that another dose of compressed air will blow it away. Oily or greasy smudges can be cleaned with either distilled water (easily produced by breathing on the lens surface) or any of the standard quick evaporating lens cleaners and a lint-free lens tissue. Never dry wipe a lens, as this will damage the coating and almost always guarantees a scratched surface. Dirty lenses produce fuzzy, blurred photomicrographs, making it virtually impossible to obtain a critical focus on the subject.

A clean photographic subject is almost as important as clean lenses on the microscope. Tiny dust particles appear as bright hot spots on the developed film, and oily smudges and fingerprints will distort the view of the gem’s inclusions. If the subject is very oily, a standard lens cleaner and lens tissue can be used to clean the surface. Normally, though, just wiping the stone off with a clean, lint free gem cloth is sufficient. Canned air, blower brush, and a fine point needle probe can be used to remove small dust particles that are attracted to the surface after the initial cleaning. A useful collection of items for the routine cleaning of microscope lenses and subjects should be kept close at hand.

Pyroelectric species such as tourmaline are often troublesome dust gatherers when they are slightly warmed by the micrcoscope illuminators commonly used. Therefore, a cool, fiber optic light source is recommended for the illumination fo such materials.

The time factor
Many gemologists rush their preparation for a photomicrograph, and a poor end product almost invariably results. The beginner in a hurry will end up with a far higher incidence of failure than of success. Speed will come only with experience. Whenever possible, as much time as is necessary should be invested to clean the subject thoroughly and adjust the lighting to adequately illuminate the desired features. A few extra moments taken in the initial set up will not only save film, but will also eliminate the necessity of a reshoot in most cases. It should be remembered that the number of mistakes made increases as the time spent decreases, so if you want good inclusion photomicrographs, be prepared to spend the time.

Controlling vibrations
Common vibration is often responsible for many a ruined photomicrograph. As exposure time and magnification increase, vibration problems also increase. The problem is how to isolate the photomicrographic unit from unavoidable room vibrations during the entire exposure cycle. Optical isolation benches and air floatation tables have been designed for this specific purpose, but their costs are prohibitive for most photomicrographers. Making your own vibration control stage is the logical alternative, and this is easily done.

Start with a hard, thick-surfaced, sturdy table as a primary base. Place a rubber cushion (such as a typewriter pad) on the table. Then put a ¼ to ½ inch thick steel plate. On this cushion, place a 1 to 3 inch thick granite (or similar rock) slab. Flat, pre-shaped, and finished rock slabs can be obtained from a local stone mason. The photomicrographic unit will rest on the rock slab. The rubber cushions effectively eliminate short, sharp vibrations while the table top, steel plate, and rock slab reduce rolling vibrations of longer wavelengths. This method eliminates vibrations for virtually all magnifications less than about 150x.

Even when an anti-vibration base is used, care must be taken to avoid touching the microscope itself, the table, or any miscellaneous equipment on the table during the actual exposure.

Exposure time
Long exposure times are one of the inclusions photomicrographer’s worst enemies because of the potential for color shifts in the film and vibration problems. The speed of the film used and the amount of light reaching the film dictate the length of exposure. In attempting to reduce exposure time, usually it is better to apply additional light to the subject than to use a faster film. In general, the higher the film speed is, the greater the graininess of the film will be. If the recorded image is to be enlarged, this should be considered. Also, as the film speed increases, the quality of the colors obtained decreases. There is an obvious difference in color saturation and richness between photographs taken with 50 ASA film and those taken with high speed 400 ASA film.

Illumination techniques

Darkfield illumination
Through the microscope, the routine observation and photography of inclusion in gem materials is greatly aided by the use of dark-field illumination. In the darkfield technique, the direct transmission of light from below through the inclusion host is blocked by a dark colored (preferably black), opaque light shield. The only light to reach the subject is indirect side light reflected from below around the sides of opaque light shield by a hemispherical or circular mirror-like reflector.

With this technique, only light that is scattered or reflected by the inclusions enters the microscope objectives and passes to the film plane. The inclusion subjects are seen very brightly against a dark background. Even tiny inclusions stand out in high relief, and a tremendous amount of detail may be photographed. Darkfield lighting is most applicable to the study of included crystals, some small fluid inclusions, healing fractures and cleavages.

For darkfield photomicrography, the subject must be very clean, since dust on the surface of the host readily stands out as tiny hot spots, while grease and finger smudges become highly visible surface swirls that tend to dim or fog the internal features.

Polarized light
Polarized light microscopy is often thought of as a mineralogist’s tool and has long been neglected by gemologists. Any gemological microscope with transmitted light capabilities can be easily converted, temporarily, to a polarizing microscope. Two polaroid plates are the only requirement. One Polaroid, called the polarizer, is placed over the transmitted light port under the gem subject. The other Polaroid, called the analyzer is placed over the gem subject in front of the microscope objective. Normally, the analyzer is rotated and polarizer remains fixed, but in this set-up both can be rotated. In routine examinations, unprotected plastic sheet polaroids with their fine scratches and slightly warped surfaces are adequate, but for photomicrography camera-type Polaroid filters of good optical quality are needed.

In color and variety, the world of polarized light microscopy can be both startling and beautiful, especially if one is using this technique for the first time. Internal strain around included crystals, crystal-intergrowth induced strain, and twinning all become visible under polarized light. Included crystals of very low relief, if doubly refractive, will stand out readily when polarized light is used and optic figures in gems can be located and photographed. If the polarizer is removed, the photographer can easily capture an inclusion in a strongly birefringent gem, such as peridot or zircon, by rotating the analyzer and clearing the otherwise strongly doubled image.

In polarized light photomicrography, light levels are usually low and exposure times are correspondingly long, if vibrations are controlled, though, the photographic results can be quite spectacular.

Transmitted light
Transmitted light is produced by removing the darkfield light shield and allowing the passage of light from directly below the gem, through the gem itself, upward into the microscope system. A great deal of detail normally seen with dark field illumination is lost in transmitted light. Darkly colored or opaque included crystals and fine growth features are virtually washed out. Large fluid inclusions, however, are very easily examined in transmitted light. Details in these fluid chambers that were invisible under darkfield conditions stand out readily in a beam of transmitted light. Color zoning is also easily observed and photographed.

When transmitted light is used, exposure times are at their shortest. Small dust particles on the surface of the host gem are no problem, since the quantity of direct bright light washing around them tends to cancel their ability to interfere with light transmission.

Oblique illumination
Between the 0º angle of horizontal lighting and the 90º angle of vertical illumination lies a range of angles that is known as the arc of oblique illumination.

Oblique illumination is seldom used in gemology except in the examination of opaque materials, when it is applied to transparent gems, however, the results can be both beautiful and fascinating. Behaving like thin films, fractures and ultra-thin liquid fingerprints spring to life, decorated by vibrant interference colors. Interfaces surrounding included crystals show details of growth on the crystals that otherwise elude observation. Reflecting facets return the oblique light rays to the observer’s eye, seemingly magnifying their intensity and the richness of color.

A variety of lighting sources can be used for oblique illumination. One of the most efficient is a fiber optic illuminator. Oblique illumination may also be used in combination with other methods of illumination, such as darkfield or polarized lighting, to add color highlights and additional light where needed, thus revealing more detail, adding desirable reflections, and reducing the exposure time required.

Ultraviolet illumination
The use of ultraviolet light in photomicrography and inclusion research is somewhat limited. If the host gem material, such as quartz or fluorite, is transparent to ultraviolet wavelengths, then certain included organic fluids and fluorescing solids will be seen to glow under the influence of the ultraviolet illumination. The low light levels of ultraviolet photomicrography often require excessively long exposure times, so slight vibrations in the equipment may become a problem.

Why not immersion?
Immersion techniques have their place in gemology; but not, at least in this writer’s opinion, in photomicrography. A general rule of thumb is the more lenses and other optically dense media that lie between the film plane and the subject, the lower the image quality will be. The common immersion liquids are dense, poisonous organic compounds that are typically colored. They generally are difficult to work with and sensitive to the bright lights that are needed for inclusion photography. Their colors tend to darken after only short exposure to these lights. In addition, they must be filtered continually to remove the microscopic dust particles that readily contaminate them. If they are not filtered, the suspended dirt will appear through the microscope as a milkiness composed of hundreds, or even thousands, of floaters in continuous motion, some in focus and some just out. The convection currents in these dense liquids are often seen as heat wave like swirls that can distort a photographed image, especially if the exposure time is long.

Although, to the beginner, facet reflections are often very irritating and seemingly uncontrollable, with experience and photomicrographer will find that these reflections can become welcome sources of additional lighting and can add both color and desirable highlights to photomicrographs. It is important to work with the light by manipulating both the gem being photographed and the source (s) of illumination. The use of immersion to control facet reflections, although somewhat tempting to the novice, only adds an additional thickness of optically dense material between the subject and the film, thus reducing the quality of the image.

Photographing scratched gems and rough crystals
Occasionally a gem is encountered with unique internal patterns that beg to be photographed, but the surface of the stone is so badly scratched that obtaining a clear image is virtually impossible. In such situations, a modified immersion technique can work very effectively. This technique employs a small droplet of an index of refraction liquid, such as a Cargille liquid, with a refractive index very close to that of the gem being photographed. The droplet is placed on the scratched stone and, as it wets the gem’s surface, all of the abrasions seen to disappear, effectively eliminating the image obstructions and allowing a clear view of the gem’s interior.

This technique has several advantages over total immersion. The liquid layer is very thin, so the effects of liquid color and density currents on image quality are negated. So little liquid is used that clean-up is very easy, and the strong odors that are so prevalent during total immersion are practically nonexistent. In addition, back reflecting facets can still be used to highlight the inclusion. This method is especially useful on soft, easily scratched gem materials such as amber.

This technique is also very helpful when studying the interiors of natural crystals through their rough crystal faces or waterworn surfaces. And it can be a tremendous aid in locating optic figures in anisotropic gemstones without having to resort to total immersion.

Conclusion
Inclusion photomicrography is a gemological skill that is well worth mastering. The knowledge necessary to obtain high quality photomicrographs goes far beyond the mere mechanics of the marriage of microscope to camera, and into the nature and very origins of the inclusions themselves.

Photomicrography adds yet another dimension to gemological microscopy and further aids the gemologist in recording and identifying stones and in appreciating the complex nature and striking beauty of inclusions in gems.

The Beauty Of Numbers

(via Vinna Mara Magalhaes)

1 x 9 + 2 = 11
12 x 9 + 3 = 111
123 x 9 + 4 = 1111
1234 x 9 + 5 = 11111
12345 x 9 + 6 = 111111
123456 x 9 + 7 = 1111111
1234567 x 9 + 8 = 11111111
12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111
123456789 x 9 + 10 = 1111111111

Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid

Memorable quote (s) from the movie:

Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman): What happened to the old bank? It was beautiful.

Guard: People kept robbing it.

Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman): Small price to pay for beauty.

Why Color Matters

Here is an interesting perspective on color and products. I don't know if it works for colored stones but there are similarities. Again, beauty and color is in the eye of the beholder.

Jim Howard, Heather Kirk and Chris Howard writes:

We’re conditioned to notice color. It’s one of the first things we notice on products or materials. The way we view those colors psychologically triggers how we feel and think. They even influence us to buy.

Your color choice will project a message about your business. When designing a brand, it makes sense to use color to establish a perceived image based on the way that color is perceived. That’s good marketing.

Think about some of the top brands. When you picture IBM, Wal-Mart or HP, do you see blue? When you think of a Target store, do you see the red bulls-eye? With American Express, you automatically see green. When you think of McDonald’s, don’t you see those yellow arches with the red sign?

Those colors were not chosen by accident. IBM represents business. American Express is all about money. McDonald’s wants to get your emotions stimulated and make you hungry. They know their target market.

What emotions are you stirring with your brand? Are they the right emotions to reach your target audience? You don’t want to waste time and money by overlooking the message you are conveying with color.

Here’s a list of frequently used colors and how people generally associate them:

WHITE – White is associated with innocence, purity, peace and contentment. It’s considered clean and sterile. It’s cool and refreshing. White can have a calming, stabilizing influence.

BLACK – Black is the ultimate power color. It suggests strength, potency, authority, boldness, seriousness, stability and elegance. It’s distinguished and classic, great for creating drama. Black has more weight than other colors. Too much can be ominous.

GRAY or SILVER – Gray can be associated with conservative qualities and considered traditional. Business-wise, it symbolizes high tech and suggests authority, practicality, earnestness and creativity.

GOLD – Gold suggests wealth. It’s considered to be very classy.

BLUE – Blue is the favorite color of many businesses. It suggests sanctuary and fiscal responsibility. It inspires confidence. It is the most popular and second most powerful color. Darker shades are authoritative. Dark and bright blues represent trust, security, faithfulness and dignity. Paler shades can imply freshness and cleanliness, although they can imply weakness.

RED – Red stimulates many kinds of appetites. Red commands attention, alerts us and creates a sense of urgency. It’s considered the sexiest of all colors. Red symbolizes heat, fire, blood, love, warmth, power, excitement, energy, strength, passion, vitality, risk, danger and aggressiveness. Financially, it’s associated with debt.

YELLOW – Yellow is the sunshine hue and is a spiritual color. Yellow represents a warning, but it can also bring happiness and warmth. The most preferred yellows are the creamy and warm ones. Bright yellow can be irritable to the eye in large quantities. Yellow speeds metabolism. It’s often used to highlight or draw attention.

GREEN – People associate green with the color of money, as well as nature. Olive greens are associated with health and freshness — a good choice for environmental concerns. Green suggests fertility, freedom, healing and tranquility. Green represents jealousy. Businesses use it to communicate status and wealth. Green is a calming, refreshing color that is very easy on the eyes.

BROWN – Brown is associated with nature and the earth. Dark browns represent wood or leather. Brown and shades of cream are associated with warmth and coziness. Brown suggests richness, politeness, helpfulness and effectiveness. It is solid, credible, mature and reliable. Light brown implies genuineness.

ORANGE – Orange is associated with vibrancy and the tropics, as well as warmth and contentment. It can instill a sense of fun and excitement. It implies health. It suggests pleasure, cheer, endurance, generosity and ambition. It can make an expensive product seem more affordable. It appeals to a wide range of people, both male and female.

PINK – Pink is considered to be a very feminine color. It represents gentleness, romance, well being and innocence.

PURPLE – Purple represents royalty and luxury. In darker shades, it’s considered a wealthy color. It suggests spirituality and sophistication. In paler shades, such as lavender, it’s feminine and romantic.

When determining the color choice for your brand, be sure to ask yourself if the color adds or detracts from your message and use these tips to help rocket you to success.

More info @ http://www.expertbusinesssource.com/article/CA6442504.html?industryid=46177

An Unusual Gem Deposit (Man-Made) at Pallebedda, Sri Lanka

An intriguing tale from Sri Lanka. Gemstones are full of surprises and the ones with accumulated luck and knowledge always find them.

(via Journal of Gemmology, Vol.28, No.1, Jan 2002) M D P L Francis and P G R Dharmaratne writes:

Abstract
An unusual gem deposit (man-made) lies in the remote village of Pallebedda in Sri Lanka. This deposit is known as ‘walankatu illama’ which lies within the bund or embankment of an abandoned tank called Kandiyapalle (alias Bisokotuwa). Second rate material from a jewelry industry of ancient times was included probably at the time of its construction. This deposit contains many archaeological artifacts including many varieties of beads, rough gems, gem carvings, glass and coins, but it is mined by villagers mainly for the precious stones because they cab be most easily marketed.

Introduction
Sri Lanka is renowned for its wide variety of fine quality gemstones such as sapphire, ruby, chrysoberyl, alexandrite, spinel and beryl. Most of these gems are found as alluvial deposits in ancient buried or existing stream beds and low-lying areas. There are several primary outcrop deposits but the gems found in them are commonly not of the best quality, other than those found at the moonstone deposit of Meetiyagoda.

Gem deposits in Sri Lanka are classified according to their distance of transportation from the source, by the shapes and sizes of the rock and mineral fragments found. Gem bearing beds where angular minerals and rocks have been deposited in situ are named as residual gem deposits. Gem bearing layers found on the hill slopes with minerals and rock fragments that are semi-rounded or rounded are termed eluvial gem deposits. The third type of gem deposit is alluvial, which is by far the most prevalent in Sri Lanka. These deposits generally lie in old stream beds, far away from their sources and are characterized by the presence of well rounded heavy minerals, indicating longer distances of transportation.

In Sri Lanka there is currently no scientific approach towards gem exploration. Established gem miners who can afford to invest in land, to purchase a license to prospect for gems and other expenses, always follow the trails of illicit gem miners. Some people find gems during their day-to-day activities such as construction of a well or while ploughing their farmlands. However, the type of gem deposit to be discussed in this paper is somewhat different to the three kinds of deposit outlined above.

Along the Ratnapura-Embilipitiya road, 21 km from Embilipitiya, is a village of Pallebedda, a gem trading center, which has existed since ancient times. Six km north east of Pallebedda is the small village of Galpaya, with an abandoned tank named Kandiyapalle alias Bisokotuwa Wewa. The bund (embankment) which encloses the tank contains hidden treasure consisting of a variety of gems, beads, and carvings made of different materials. These artifacts and gems occur in a layer in the bund, 60 to 180 cm thick, which local people call ‘walankatu illama’. In Sinhalese, ‘walankatu’ refers to pieces of earthenware and ‘illama’ refers to gem deposit. The artifacts beat witness to how knowledgeable the ancient civilization of Sri Lanka was and to their standard of living. The gem carvings exhibit the most intricate and delicate workmanship and provide evidence of a sophisticated technology of the time.

Historical records
According to several authors there is evidence that this area was once a flourishing agricultural village. R L Brohier, Surveyor General during colonial times, describes this tank with reference to a Mr Collins and a Mr Mitford who was Assistant Government Agent, Sabaragamuva Province in 1848. According to the quotes this tank was quite beautiful at the time and had watered nearly a thousand acres of paddy fields. There is an ancient stone pillar situated in the village with an inscription dating to the tenth century A.D which indicates that the village was called Girimandula. It is not certain as to who built the tank but according to folklore the builder was King Vijayabahu I (1055-1110).

Materials found
For the villager, ‘walankatu illama’ is merelya gem deposit, unique because artifacts were found among the buried potsherds. This deposit is located along the tank bund that extends for more than 3.2 km (two miles). At a depth of 60 to 120 cm from the top surface lies the layer called the ‘walankatu illama’ with an abundance of potsherds. The thickness of the layer ranges from 60 to 180 cm. The layer is easily identified and the material is washed as usual in large wicker baskets to extract the gem material. A general idea as to the percentage of the earthenware material contained in the illama can be formed from the heaps of debris found in the vicinity of the washing sites. The miners are interested only in the gems, carvings and beads that fetch high prices. The highest prices are obtained for gems such sapphire, geuda, pushparaga (yellow sapphire), chrysoberyl, etc. Even among these gems there are instances of finding stones with drill holes to indicate that they were once discarded as valueless, owing to imperfections detected during the process of drilling. Other than these, various kinds of objects have been found within the area, and these include many kinds of beads, clay utensils, glass bangles, stone cameos, intaglios, coins and bones.

The illama contains many types of large and small beads in a variety of shapes. These include, glass, carnelian, agate, amethyst, terracotta, garnet, feldspar, rock crystal, chrysoberyl and zircon. These stones are called ‘mukkaru gal’ by the villagers, because most have drill holes which identify them as the raw material of a trade practiced for a living by a segment of society known as mukkaru. The most sought after beads (mukkaru gal) were the beads made of gem materials such as conrundum or amethyst.

At this site agate beads and clear glass beads have also been found in large quantities. According to archaeological dating, clear glass was made at a later date than colored glass. As in many other places, carnelian beads of many shapes and sizes found at this site are believed to be from India. Pieces of beads broken during production, unfinished beads and discarded second-rate material suggest that there had been jewelry workshops here during ancient times.

Terracotta beads of various shapes and sizes are very common, the majority being disc-shaped; the larger ones are embedded with a tiny copper wire to strengthen the bead—an example of the ingenuity of the ancient craftsmen.

Almost all the beads show clear evidence of how they were drilled. The abrasion marks indicate that they were drilled from both ends to meet in the middle, and commonly this resulted in a slight disorientation in the center.

The question arises as to how they drilled tiny holes through these very hard substances. Some are of the opinion that emery powder and iron drill bits were used. If this is the case, how were the hard materials like sapphires drilled? Even for other gem species, it could have taken a very long time using this method to drill a single bead. Large numbers of beads found in the area suggest that the drillers were experts. Is it possible that they could have used diamond drill bits exported from India for the purpose of drilling? According to Henry Parker the bow-driven drill was familiar to locals in Sri Lanka from the second century B C onwards. So it is a fair assumption that they used this type of drill along with diamond drill bits to drill with ease large quantities of beads and to cope with the harder gems such as sapphire. A number of stones of hard materials such as sapphire and spinel that contain multiple drill holes of the same gauge or different gauges have been found. This could have happened as a result of testing the gauges of drill bits on these stones.

The most interesting materials found in this deposit are not the beads or the clay utensils but the most intricately carved cameos and intaglios. These carvings are mostly in materials such as carnelian, rock crystal and colored glasses, and very rarely in other types of material—one such rare type is chrysoberyl. Some carvings depict a cow in a seated position and three cows carved are similar to an ancient painting of an Egyptian goddess. The human figures carved are of both males and females. The female figures are mainly of dancers and of semi-nude woman meant to be either a dancer or more probably a goddess adorned with masks. Male figures include a hunter with his weapon and a dead animal, a seated Buddha in meditation and a man dragging a child bound with ropes, scratched on rock crystal (wessantara jataka, a parable of Buddhism).

Conclusion
These materials are much older than the date of construction of the dam, and this layer found within the dam was the fill material for the bund excavated from the nearby ancient work sites, where the clay utensils, beads and other carvings were manufactured. According to many experts, the materials can be dated from the first to the twelfth century A D. Therefore the assumption is that at the time the mukkaru people lived and worked in this vicinity in large numbers. The artifacts are of very good craftsmanship although they were made using the most primitive methods and instruments. In terms of the intricacy of the carvings and the quality of the drill holes in the sapphire they are not inferior to today’s standards. They are also remarkable aesthetically.

This is an unusual gem deposit because it contains artifacts that had been once discarded by people who were only interested in gems of value (precious material). Sometimes a villager who has found a carved artifact of a precious stone may try to erase the carving by grinding it on a lap to make a faceted gem. This would find a more ready market than the carvings, which are considered as archaeological artifacts and cannot be sold on the open market.